FINANCIAL REFORM

The FBI has opened a probe into trading losses at JPMorgan Chase & Co, stepping up the pressure on the bank after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve said they were also looking into the wrong-way bets that led to the losses.

JPMorgan's massive $2 billion trading loss has spilled over into presidential politics, with presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney calling the disastrous trade as an example of the inherent risks of the free market.

During a Tuesday morning appearance on the talk show The View, President Obama attributed JPMorgan's $2 billion trading loss to a lack of financial regulation.

The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was a Depression-era law that separated investment and commercial banks. It was repealed in 1999 during the Clinton administration.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), the largest and most profitable U.S. bank, will launch a reloadable prepaid card in its 5,541 branches this summer, aiming to attract new customers and recoup fees it has lost under recent regulatory changes.

China's state banks make money far too easily and their monopoly on financial services has to be broken if cash-starved private enterprises are to get timely access to capital, state media cited Premier Wen Jiabao as saying on Tuesday.

China's state banks make money too easily and their monopoly on financial services has to be broken if cash-starved private enterprises are to get access to capital when they need it, state media cited Premier Wen Jiabao as saying on Tuesday.

The BRICS nations met for a summit in New Delhi, where, among other subjects, they discussed the possible formation of a joint development bank, closer integration of their respective stock exchanges, energy security and ongoing tensions in the Middle East. But they still wield no power as a bloc, says an expert who has studied the BRICS phenomenon

President Barack Obama would vastly outperform his Republican opponent among Latino voters -- a rapidly-growing voting bloc that could prove decisive in several swing states in 2012, according to a new Fox News Latino poll.

China's economic model, driven by exports and investment, is no longer sustainable and reforms are needed to prevent a serious slowdown, the World Bank concludes in a new report.

Of all the issues likely to surface at Wednesday night's Republican debate in Arizona, immigration is a fairly safe bet. That's because Arizona has come to embody the GOP's approach to immigration, in 2010 passing a controversial immigration law that became the model for similar bills passed by Republican-controlled legislatures in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Utah.

A current rally in the sprawling $7.74 trillion field for corporate bonds, which are issued as debt by major American corporations, belies a great churning occurring just beneath the market's surface. Recently, Richard Prager, who heads the bond strategy desk at the world's largest asset management firm, put it succinctly: "Houston, we got a problem."

The Occupy movement has moved beyond pickets and protests with a group called Occupy the SEC, which has submitted a 325-page letter on the proposed Volcker Rule.

U.S. stocks bounced back Monday from Friday's biggest loss of the year as Greece's parliament passed the deeply unpopular austerity bill to secure international rescue funds. The strict financial reform includes a 22 percent cut to minimum wage and 150,000 public-sector job cuts. Rioters protesting the measures set fire to buildings in downtown Athens.

Wall Street has been lashing out against the Volcker rule since it was proposed, but a senior Goldman Sachs executive said on Wednesday the trading restriction might actually help the investment bank's profitability.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sounded a relatively cautious note on the state of capital markets regulation reform Thursday, detailing the work various branches of the federal executive have done, what the results had been so far, and what expectations he held for 2012.

Mit Romney has been dogged from the early days of his campaign about his ability to connect to the Tea Party voters who were instrumental in reshaping the political landscape in 2010, but in the Florida primary he captured a large portion of the Tea Party vote. Experts say his success owes partially to a broad shift towards Tea Party philosophies.

School lunch standards received their first overhaul in 15 years on Wednesday, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture released standards that would increase the amount of fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods served to 32 million students.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) confirmed on Wednesday that she will seek a fourth term in Congress, ending speculation that she use springboard from an unsuccessful presidential run to a media role.

A group of consumer advocates, academics and economists want to end too-big-to-fail banks, starting with Bank of America Corp.

The National Federation of Independent Business is challenging President Barack Obama's controversial recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.